Ernest Kimme: Robotics competition shows our future is in good hands

My nephew likes robots. I should add that my nephew goes to Cal Tech and last spring won a robotics competition in his mechanical engineering class.

He and his team spent 5 months designing, proto-typing and building -- on a limited budget -- two robots. Each was required to be hand-crafted by the students.

The object was to collect ping-pong balls from a land-based dispenser using one robot, somehow transfer the balls to a water robot, and have that robot deposit the balls on small "islands" in a pond.

At the same time, another team was doing the same thing and attempting to prevent his team from scoring. Of course, his team was also trying to keep the other team from scoring.

The competition lasted all afternoon. Representatives from various manufacturing companies were there, as well as reporters from various media. Even Stephen Hawking showed up for a while; the whole crowd buzzed when he wheeled up.

My nephew's team won the competition. Besides being proud of him, I left with a sense of hope for the United States.

These students solved some tough problems in creative ways. One team had an amphibious vehicle that was equally powerful on land and water. Another team built a robot that could flip over other robots.

When people say we are losing the technology race to other countries, I think of this robotic competition. These are the people who will be solving tomorrow's problems:

You want a car that uses less gasoline or no gasoline?

You want electricity to travel thousands of miles on super-conducting wires?

You want a refrigerator that uses almost no electricity?

You want to heat your house for half the energy that you use today?

You want food that is healthier and fresher?

You want to identify and cure cancer in your body before it even shows as a tumor?

You want to create fresh water from ocean water?

These students will be designing solutions to problems that we cannot even conceive of today. Whatever the problems of the future are, these people will figure out ways to solve them.

So to those who see the future as dark and dismal, I say, "Piffle."

To those who think our education system is creating a generation of welfare artists and leeches, I say, "Nuts.'

To those who wish for a return to the "good old days" -- whatever they were -- I say, "Ha!"

The best is yet to come.

By the way, last summer my nephew interned at the Jet Propulsion Lab, where he designed a device to collect a sample of a comet.

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The author is a Vacaville resident and member of The Reporter editorial board. E-mail: egk3@mac.com.